Transcript of "Learning through games in museums"

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Museums as settings for games • Museums play important role as sites of informal and lifelong learning • Proliferation of game culture in modern societies • Games are effective ways to learn in an informal way both for young visitors and for adults[ D. Norman, The Future of Education: Lessons Learned from Video Games andMuseum Exhibits, www.jnd.org, 2001 ] 2

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The museum collaborative: with other institutions, third parties, audienceNancy Proctor, 2001http://www.slideshare.net/nancyproctor/the-museum-as-agora-identity-and- 4collaboration-in-the-21st-century-museum?src=related_normal&rel=809650

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Gaming the Future of Museums • “We have all this pent-up knowledge in museums, all this pent-up expertise, and all these collections designed to inspire and bring people together. • The museum community has a kind of ethical responsibility to unleash it and contribute to the happiness of mankind”. • …this may be done through games, as they do all the things we need to be happy: satisfying work, the experience of being good at something, time spent with people we like, and the chance to be a part of something bigger. J. McGonigalAmerican Association of Museum’s (AAM) talk 5http://www.slideshare.net/avantgame/gaming-the-future-of-museums-a-lecture-by-jane-mcgonigal-presentation

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Games in museums: trends • Static games – Onsite games – Web based games – Multiplayer games • Mobile games – Adopting board games – Narratives in games • The social dimension – the museum as social medium – Games for crowd sourcing in museums 6

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Onsite GamesInteractiveexhibitsPlay the orchestra conductorat Mozart’s house in Viennahttp://dananderica2010.blogspot.com Group activity: A quiz discussion table at the London Science Museum D. Norman, The Future of Education: Lessons Learned fromImages: http://www.jnd.org/images/LondonSciMuseum-2for-web.jpg Video Games and Museumhttp://dananderica2010.blogspot.com/ Exhibits, www.jnd.org, 2001 7

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The web: to video games and beyondIn search for the learning benefit andrelation to the museum collectionGames discussed: – The Parthenon Frieze – The Getty games – The London Science Museum – Smithsonian American Art Museum 8

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Play with the Frieze• "Play with the Frieze" is intended for children. It begins with an introduction where the user can understand very quickly what the frieze was, where it was, what it represented, and he can see a number of statistical facts.• They are games of memory and they are designed to attract children to closer observation of the details of the frieze.• In this same category of games, the children are asked to exercise their powers of observation, they are asked to put together a puzzle.• The game … is intended to enliven the relief scenes of the frieze and to help the children to imagine their colours.• In the game … they try to find the correct position of the 16 blocks of the West Frieze (compare images).• In the games …, the children have to match text with picture. 9 http://cordis.europa.eu/wire/index.cfm?fuseaction=article.Detail&rcn=20548

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WWO: A game about the future:narrative and simulationWORLD WITHOUT OIL simulated the first 32 weeksof a global oil crisis. It established a citizen “nervecenter” to track events and share solutions.Anybody could play by creating a personal story – anemail or phone call, or for advanced users a blogpost, video, photo, etc. – that chronicled theimagined reality of their life in the crisis. The gameencouraged excellence with daily awards andrecognition for authentic and intriguing stories. 27http://worldwithoutoil.org

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On educational value …. the educational value of many of these games is not always clear, but what is clear is that kids are becoming more familiar with works of art, they are learning to look and think critically about art, and they are associating museums and art with fun. [from a review in futuresoflearning.org]http://futuresoflearning.org/index.php/Firda_08/tag/games+in+museums 28

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Alternate reality games • An alternate reality game (ARG) is an interactive narrative that uses the real world as a platform, often involving multiple media and game elements, to tell a story that may be affected by participants ideas or actions. • A live action role-playing game (LARP) is a form of role-playing game where the participants physically act out their characters actions. The players pursue goals within a fictional setting represented by the real world, while interacting with each other in character.[wikipedia] 31

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ARGs in Museums: Ghost of a Chance • Players were asked to interpret weekly challenges by creating and mailing artifacts to the Luce Foundation Center. • Entered into the museum’s collection, these items represented a player-generated gallery collection that unlocked further clues in the game’s narrative.http://ghostsofachance.com/ 32

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Ghost of a ChanceSmithsonian American Art MuseumUser-submitted images from the "Ghost of a Chance" interactive multimedia game at the Smithsonian American Art Museum 33

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Place-based simulation games: Environmental Detectives A place-based game created by MITtargeted at high school and university students. Students played the role of environmental engineers presented with an environmental emergency. The goal was to locate the source of a spill, identify the responsible party, design a remediation plan, and brief the authorities on any health and legal risks -all within two hours 37http://education.mit.edu/ar/ed.html

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MuseumScrabble: linking exhibits• Task to build connections between exhibits and themes/concepts that can be linked to more than one exhibits with different strength according to its relevance to the theme• The concepts may be embeded in a narrative that the players have to follow• Game is played by groups playing against each other• Players fight for resources (exhibits) as they capture the exhibits not allowing the opponents to use it. 38

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A city game with contribution oftasks/riddles by the players :Invisible City Mission tasks may be contributed through a web site (e.g. a school teacher can design a specific version of the game for a school party) [Sintoris et al. 2011 ] 45

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Player-created/adapted Games By developing their own Games students can show what they have learned, and they can also “explore various hypotheses” using the game (Klopfer, 2008). User configuration of game elements is a tool for learning (Yiannoutsou et al. 2011).Klopfer, E. (2008) Augmented Learning: Research and Design ofMobile Educational Games. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.Yiannoutsou N., Sintoris C., Avouris N, End User configuration ofgame elements: Game construction as learning activity, IS-EUD 462011

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Bending the rules: Cheats and tricks (…finally a way to have a decent salary! )http://kewlwhyvilletricks.webs.com/ 48

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Harnessing the social power: Crowdsourcing games in museums• Crowdsourcing is the act of sourcing tasks traditionally performed by specific individuals to an undefined large group of people or community (crowd) through an open call 49

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Crowdsourcing games • They are fun and engaging • They are productive • Have high learning potential with sense of ownership of new knowledge (information and skills) • The museums learn too and adapt to their audience • Help players acquire, test and master new skills[M.Ridge, Everyone wins: Crowdsourcing games & Museums, MuseumNext, May 2011] 55

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Summary• Games enrich visitor experience in museums engaging them, making them more active• However the educational value of games, especially traditional video games is questioned• Mobile games with support of technology may increase interaction with exhibits and have high learning potential• The social dimension in museum games is becoming more relevant, as players may contribute content, adapt the games, build new games, cheat J even help the museum…• Crowdsourcing games can be of benefit to both museums and players 56